Sarcoidosis May Cause Neuropathy

Researchers from Chiba University in Japan have found that peripheral neuropathy can be a rare manifestation of sarcoidosis, which is a disease of unknown cause that leads to inflammation.

Normally, your immune system defends your body against foreign or harmful substances. These cells release chemicals that recruit other cells to isolate and destroy the harmful substance. Inflammation occurs during this process.

Once the harmful substance is destroyed, the cells and the inflammation go away, except in people who have sarcoidosis, where the inflammation doesn’t go away. In these cases some of the immune system cells cluster to form lumps called granulomas in various organs in your body and damage them.

In this study three patients with sarcoidosis presented with multiple mononeuropathy as the initial symptoms. Nerve conduction studies showed prominent multifocal conduction blocks in the nerve trunk.

In all three patients, corticosteroid treatment resulted in a dramatic clinical improvement associated with rapid resolution of conduction blocks. Subsequent electrodiagnostic findings suggested that demyelinative or ischemic-functional conduction block was responsible for their neuropathy.